The most popular carpet display rack used currently is what is called the "waterfall." Typically, as illustrated in the U.S. design patent of Best, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 212,136, issued Aug. 27, 1968, the carpet samples are bolted to the rack so they are not individually accessible. The samples below the top three or four are difficult to get at for viewing. The pile on those near the bottom tends to become crushed and unappealing. Thus, structural disabilities inherent in the waterfall display system make sales based on some carpet samples inherently less probable than sales based on others, irrespective of quality, price and availability of the carpeting. Just as it is difficult for consumers to effectively browse to the bottom of a waterfall display of carpet samples, it is difficult for the sellers maintaining the displays to delete and insert samples therefrom and thereinto. In general, a waterfall display rack is limited to accommodating samples of a single size.
Other prior art display racks are shown in the following prior U.S. patents:
______________________________________ Patentee U.S. Pat. No. Issue Date ______________________________________ Jennings 3,633,759 January 11, 1972 Schouten Des. 243,577 March 8, 1977 ______________________________________
Of course, other plate-like products or samples traditionally and frequently are displayed in upwardly open, transversally partitioned racks. Examples of such plate-like products incude phonograph records, magazines, library index cards, and art prints for framing.